Children and Self Control

July 20, 2009

My daughter shares some blog postings from her Google Reader from time to time. Recently she shared this article which offers some great insight and practical advice for teaching self control to your children.

If we want our children to grow up with reverence for God, then that reverence is best instilled in the earliest years, which means church is not a place to eat or be amused, but a place to be still and listen and experience God on whatever level possible.

I like the idea in the above blog link of training a toddler to control his or her own body, as an early exercise in developing self control. “You are boss of your body. You can decide to sit still.”

Long time readers will remember that my congregation includes the children (except the smallest toddlers) in the adult worship service with their parents. Of course this creates a couple of challenges: managing the child’s behavior, and making the worship experience a constructive time for the child. I have blogged about this before. Following are a few more blog articles my daughter has sent me in the past, which offer more practical advice for making the worship experience constructive for children:

I’m sure you noticed that all of these blogs are written by women. Maybe that’s because my daughter tends to send me articles from blogs written by women. But I suspect there is more to it than that. Usually women are much more focused on the challenges of raising small children than men are. That is unfortunate, since the scriptures challenge fathers to bring up their children in the Lord. This is a topic that should be of interest to fathers and church leaders alike, as we carry out our God-given responsibilities to the next generation.

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